


it's not just make believe

by spacemanearthgirl



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, Game Night, Getting Together, SuperCorp, fake dating au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 15:29:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19231927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacemanearthgirl/pseuds/spacemanearthgirl
Summary: Kara and Lena pretend they're dating around their friends, so Mon-El will leave Kara alone. No one is suprised that they're together.Or Kara very much enjoys pretending to date Lena while being super confused about the fact that no one is surprised by the news.





	it's not just make believe

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a sucker for fake datings aus.

Kara adjusts the pillows on her couch for the third time, needing something to do to occupy her time until game night starts.

Half an hour, she still has half an hour until everyone arrives and she’s slowly going insane with the wait.

She’s nervous about tonight, but at least she’s nervous for a different reason than she was this morning. This morning, guilt had pooled in her stomach too at the thought of tonight, at the thought that Mon-El would be here and she’d no doubt have had to turn him down.

Again.

It’s not her fault he has feelings for her, he’s responsible for his own feelings, she knows that, has to keep telling herself that. But it doesn’t make it easier.

It’s not about that anymore though, the reason she’s nervous is solely thanks to Lena and idea she’d come up with this morning after Kara had been telling her about Mon-El and his persistent behaviour towards her.

Lena’s first idea had been to just let her _“deal with him”_ whatever that meant. Kara had nixed that idea immediately, but then Lena had come up with another idea, one that involved a little lying but would hopefully get Mon-El to leave her alone.

_“What if we pretend we’re dating instead, do you think that’ll get him to leave you alone?”_

Lena always gets this look in her eye whenever she brings up Mon-El, and she’d had the same look when she’d proposed that idea this morning.

She’d said yes.

Kara almost jumps when the message tone on her phone goes off.

**You sure about tonight?**

She is. Even though the plan scares her a little, she’s also sure it’ll work. And it’s Lena, despite the crush she my have on her, she is her best friend too.

**Yes. Thank you.** She punctuates her message with a small red heart and smiles when Lena replies with a heart of her own.

Kara takes a deep breath, she can do this, it’s just one night, and maybe her friends and sister will be surprised when they suddenly announce they’re dating, but she knows she and Lena can handle it.

And the most important part of this whole plan is that she can get Mon-El to stop asking her out while having an extra excuse to stay close to Lena.

Alex and Maggie arrive first, a little early thankfully, which momentarily takes her mind off what’s happening tonight. James is next and she finds herself relaxing even more. But then Winn and Mon-El show up next and Lena isn’t here yet to deflect Mon-El. She greets Winn with a hug then uses the distraction of James greeting Mon-El to avoid having to greet him too as she ducks into the kitchen instead under the guise of getting snacks.

Now she’s in the kitchen, so she might as well _actually_ get snacks and she has four different flavours of potato chips poured into four different bowls and popcorn in a fifth when she picks up a familiar heartbeat coming up the elevator.

She piles the five bowls into her arms and manages to make it to coffee table without spilling any. Maybe she shouldn’t have carried so many at once because putting them down is harder than picking them up was and Maggie steps in to help, just as the doorbell rings.

Alex is closest so she takes the job that Kara wanted of greeting Lena first.

They get the bowls down with minimal spilling and then Kara makes her own way to the door, smiling as she sees Alex pulls Lena in for a hug. Lena always hesitates when others hug her, she’s always stiff for a fraction of a second, before she relaxes into the embrace, just as she’s doing now.

Except with Kara, with her, there’s none of that instant hesitation, there’s no stilling as arms wrap around her, Lena always immediately just sinks into Kara’s arms and holds her back just as tight.

By the time she reaches them, Lena is completely in her apartment, door closed behind her. Kara steps in close, ready to greet her best friend as soon as Alex is done.

Which she does, as soon as Lena’s eyes land on her, she watches her soften slightly and then Kara is powerless to do anything but pull her in for her own hug.

“Hi, love,” Kara says, suddenly remembering exactly what this night is meant to be about, the words escaping her lips without thought, even though Alex is the only one close enough to hear them.

“ _Love?_ ” she sees Alex mouth from nearby over Lena’s shoulder, clear confusion on her face.

Right, she’d forgotten to tell Alex about their plan for the evening. But maybe she hadn’t entirely forgotten, maybe she’d avoided telling Alex on purpose. She knows what her sister would say, knows she’d probably want to talk to Mon-El herself, always the protective big sister. But this way is easier, this way she gets to spend the entire evening close to her best friend while showing Mon-El she’s unavailable, thus making sure he doesn’t ask her out again. And if he does, she can respond with “I’m seeing someone” instead of hurting his feelings again by saying she doesn’t like him back.

“Love?” Lena questions quietly when they part, clear amusement in her eyes. Kara’s cheeks go red. She’s just playing the part of Lena’s girlfriend because if Lena was her real girlfriend, she’d want to call her a pet name, something that no one else gets too call her. Or so she reasons anyway.

“What?” Kara questions, conscience that Alex is still nearby.

“Nothing,” Lena shrugs, a softer smile falling onto her lips.

Kara’s at a sudden loss of what to do. Lena’s here, she’s just called her _‘love’_ , but they didn’t really talk much about how tonight would go, besides the fact that they’d pretend they’re dating. They hadn’t made any sort of plan, besides the fact that they’d agreed to trust each other and that Lena would do anything to help her with her situation with Mon-El.

“Are you three joining us or what?” Maggie calls from the other side of the room and Kara takes the interruption as the lifeline it is and steps further away from Lena, avoiding Alex’s gaze as she does.

Kara startles when, halfway across the room, a warm hand slips into hers, fingers slotting between hers like they does this all the time.

Kara has to make a conscious effort to make it appear like they actually _do_ do this all the time, because right now her heart is doing funny things in her chest and she suddenly feels warm all over.

_Is this normal?_

Lena sends her a look, a clear ‘ _is this ok?’_ in her eyes, hidden behind a smile that no one but her will be able to see through.

Kara squeezes their joined hands, which doesn’t help Kara herself relax but she feels Lena relax at her side.

“Who’s ready to lose?” Lena asks, eyes bright with competiveness as they take their normal seats. Is this what they’re going to do tonight? Just act normal while being a bit closer than usual? Maybe they actually should’ve talked about this. Should they announce to the room they’re dating or just see if they figure it out themselves?

“I hope you are,” Alex shoots back as she settles into Maggie’s side, an arm thrown over the shorter woman’s shoulder.

Kara can do that, that’s what people who are dating do, right? She knows she’d like it if Lena put her arm around her. Kara untangles their fingers where they are joined in her lap, and she doesn’t miss the looks around the room as she slips her arm around Lena’s shoulder, pulls her a little closer.

“What are we playing first?” Lena asks, like they both now can’t see the confused looks being shot around the room. At least Mon-El looks confused too, which means he’s picking up on something different too.

“Uno?” Winn suggests.

“I need a beer first if we’re playing uno,” Lena says and Kara belatedly realises she never offered her friend a drink.

“Why?” Maggie pipes in. “Because you know you’re going to lose?”

“That’s big talk, coming from someone who always loses,” Lena shoots back.

Maggie grins. “You’re so on, Luthor.” The name is said with no malice, said with nothing but a familial competitiveness these nights bring out in all of them.

“It’s cute that you think you’re going to win,” Alex joins in, pressing a kiss to Maggie’s cheek, sparking another idea in Kara’s mind.

“You guys scare me sometimes,” James cuts in and then before a big argument between everyone can start, Kara steps in.

Kara removes her arm from around Lena’s shoulder, drops it to her thigh instead, making sure to keep it closer to the knee. “I’ll get you a drink.” And then before she can overthink it, she ducks in and presses a quick kiss to Lena’s cheek, her lips barely touching Lena’s soft skin.

She’s up and in the kitchen before she can see Lena’s reaction but she can hear how fast her heart is suddenly beating and hopes she hasn’t just crossed a line. Lena had said she’d do anything to help her, does this count as anything? This isn’t even the first time she’s kissed her on the cheek before but this feels different somehow.

Kara has a beer in hand for each of them when she returns to the couch a few moments later. Lena’s cheeks are definitely red when she sits down, she hopes Alex didn’t do anything while she was gone. Kara didn’t hear them speak but she’s been on the receiving end of a lot of looks from Alex and some of them are decidedly unfun.

She catches Alex’s eye as she retakes her seat, Alex shooting her one of those looks, a questioning one. Kara avoids her sisters gaze in favour of helping Winn set up the game.

Winn ends up winning the first round, much to Kara’s amusement and everyone else’s disappointment, but then Lena wins the next three.

“You can totally see my cards,” Kara says, trying to tilt her hand so Lena can’t see, but it’s futile with them sitting so close.

“You don’t have to sit that close,” Winn says. Kara wants to throw something at him for pointing it out, now she’s going to have to move.

Except… “I’d rather lose than move,” Kara says, snuggling even closer to Lena, using the excuse that they’re dating to be close to her best friend.

“Are you sure?” Mon-El asks. “Because you can sit here next to me if you want.”

“I’m sure.”

Kara sees Lena try and hide a smile out the corner of her eye.

Alex wins the next round, and is super smug about it, so Kara suggests they play a different game instead. They do, they move onto monopoly, which they stop halfway through when it’s clear Lena’s going to win again, then it’s charades next.

Alex and Maggie beat them, by two points, with James, Mon-El and Winn losing so spectacularly that it’s not even worth mentioning their points.

Kara’s disappointed by the loss, charades is the game she has the most chance of winning at, paired with both Lena or Alex, but not this time.

Or, she’s disappointed, until Lena leans over and presses a kiss to her cheek. “Darling, we’ll get them next time.”

Kara’s cheeks go red, maybe losing isn’t so bad after all.

_“Darling?”_ she hears Maggie quietly ask Alex, sees Alex shrug out of the corner or her eye in response.

They settle back down for another few rounds of uno, something short and with slightly less competition to end the night with.

The whole night so far, Kara has managed to avoid talking to Mon-El, or at least avoid talking to him alone, maybe she didn’t even need her plan with Lena for tonight. Except he corners her in the kitchen when she makes one last snack run halfway through their final games of uno.

She blames her stomach entirely.

Kara catches Lena’s eye, sees her make a move to follow them, but she shakes her head. Their plan is actually about to come in handy, this is the perfect opportunity to put a stop to his advances on her once and for all.

“Do-“

Kara holds up her hand, cutting Mon-El off. He’s really just going to go for it? Ask her out without any small talk first. Kara shouldn’t be surprised but she is.

“I know what you’re going to say.” Kara doesn’t like the way he smiles at her. She’s trying to be nice to him, inviting him to nights like this, she knows they’re his only friends, but he makes it so hard sometimes. “But before you ask, there’s something I should tell you.”

His smile only gets wider. She knows he’s trying to be charming but it’s definitely not working.

“I have a girlfriend.” Kara can’t help but smile as she says the words, even if they’re not real, her stomach still fills with butterflies at the thought. “Lena and I are dating.”

“You and Lena are dating?!” Mon-El asks, or it’s more of a shout really, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Well, at least he knows now.

“Yeah.” Kara looks over to the rest of her friends and she sees them all looking surprised, with the exception of Lena, who’s blushing again. “We just didn’t know how to tell everyone,” Kara says, turning back to Mon-El.

“Does that mean you don’t want to go out to dinner with me?”

Kara has to try very hard not to roll her eyes (or _use_ her eyes). “I don’t want to have dinner with you,” she says, wanting to make it very clear. Being clear hasn’t worked before but maybe with Lena in the mix it will.

She grabs another bag of potato chip from her cupboard and heads back to the group, she doesn’t want to talk to Mon-El any longer. Kara’s blushing too as all eyes are on her as she takes her seat again.

“I knew it!” Maggie says as she settles back into Lena’s side. “I told you they were dating.” With the exception of calling each other pet names and maybe the cheek kisses, they’ve been acting pretty much the way they always have, so Kara’s not sure what Maggie is talking about. She hasn’t said that once to Alex tonight.

“I knew they liked each other,” Alex grumbles as she pulls out her wallet and hands a twenty to Maggie. “I just didn’t think they both knew it yet.”

_Wait, what?_

“Congrats you guys,” James says, Winn nodding along in agreement.

Kara had expected surprise when they found out they were dating, confusion even, questions, but not blind acceptance. None of them look surprised anymore, they just look happy, with the exception of Mon-El anyway.

“Thanks?” Kara says, uncertain. She’s more confused than anything now, but she just has to accept their words, can’t say anything without ruining their lie.

“How long?” Alex asks.

They really should’ve come up with a story for tonight.

“A month,” Lena says, threading her fingers through Kara’s once more. She shoots Kara an affectionate smile, love clear in her eyes as she does.

Wow, Lena is really good at this.

“Yeah, a month,” Kara confirms, nodding her head as she looks away from Lena. This is the one time she’s allowed to get lost in her gaze but she knows she shouldn’t get too caught up in this, knows it ends once everyone goes home.

Kara’s quick reflexes stop the pillow that comes flying in their direction. “Next time, tell me something that big?”

“Don’t be upset you lost the bet,” Maggie says, nudging Alex’s side gently. “Just be happy for them.”

Alex roll her eyes. “I _am_ happy for them, but I’d be even happier if I had my money too.”

“The secret keeping is my fault,” Lena says, thankfully saving Kara from having think of something to say. “I asked Kara if we could keep things just between us for a while, so we could figure things out together before everyone found out.”

Rao, Kara could kiss her. She can definitely see businesswoman Lena shining through right now with how well she’s basically handling an interrogation from her family while Kara is floundering.

Alex smile turns softer and now Kara wants to kiss her. Or at least hug her. Something to show her appreciation for how accepting Alex has always been of Lena, despite what the public used to think of her.

“At least you two have figured it out now, I was starting to wonder if we were going to have to intervene to get you together.”

Maybe she doesn’t want to hug Alex now, maybe she wants to drag her out of the room and ask her what she’s talking about. Or at least if she’s out of the room, Alex can’t talk anymore. Is it possible she hasn’t been as secretive about her feelings for Lena as she thought?

Kara feels Lena still against her and it seems Alex has even silenced Lena now.

Kara needs to say something so they don’t blow this entire thing now, so close to the end.

“I had no idea she liked me until she asked me out but we got there eventually,” Kara says, smiling at Lena even as her heart pounds in her chest.

“Ha! I told you it would be Lena that asks Kara out!” Alex exclaims, turning on Maggie. “You owe me breakfast in bed.”

“How many bets did you have based on us?” Kara says, looking between the two of them. How did she not know about this before? And _why are they betting on them?_

Maggie and Alex look at each other but say nothing.

“On that note, we should call it a night,” Winn says, dropping his cards on the table.

There’s agreement around the table as they all help pack up the game and tidy away the dishes. They say their goodbyes, Alex giving Kara a _‘we’ll talk’_ look after they hug.

Before Kara knows it, everyone has gone and she’s left alone with Lena.

The night’s events flash through Kara’s mind. Their plan worked, Mon-El won’t be a problem anymore. Or he won’t be, as long as she’s dating Lena.

Wait, _shoot_ , she hadn’t thought about that.

“We did it,” Lena grins, making her way back over to the couch. “I got a bit worried their in the middle but we pulled it off.”

Kara smiles, taking the seat beside Lena, glad she doesn’t seem to be leaving just yet. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

Kara bites her lip. “It may be anytime, considering we’re going to have to keep up this act whenever we’re around anyone now.”

“Oh.”

It seems she’s not the only one who hadn’t thought about it.

“We could tell everyone it was fake? Or that we broke up?” Kara asks. “I don’t want to make your life more difficult just because a guy wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Lena laughs. “They seemed to so easily believe we were dating, I’m not sure they’d believe we broke up.”

“Should we talk about that?”

Lena frowns. “Talk about what?”

Kara swallows nervously. “About the fact that no one was surprised when we said we were dating.”

Lena’s fingers tangle in her lap, a sure sign she’s nervous about something. “I guess we do act quite close, don’t we?”

“We’re friends though.” Kara grins. “Best friends, so aren’t we allowed to be close, since we are?”

Lena smiles too. “I didn’t say we weren’t _allowed_ , I can just see why they’d think that. They’re not the only ones that have assumed we’re dating.”

“Really?”

Lena nods. “Jess has asked before, and Sam assumed we were dating when you first met her too.”

Kara thinks about it, thinks about how they act, and sure they sit too closely sometimes, and their hugs seem to linger, but she’s not sure why else people would assume that. Kara doesn’t want to ask her next question. “Should we change the way we act, if people always assume we’re dating?”

“I don’t care what people think and I personally quite like the way we act.”

Kara smiles with relief. “Me too.”

“And aren’t we supposed to be pretending to be a couple in front of our friends, anyway? This just makes it easier.”

Kara thinks about it and she supposes Lena has a point, but something doesn’t feel quite right about the situation.

“Do we need to talk about that too? I thought this was just going to be a one time thing, I don’t want things to change between us. It wouldn’t be weird if we continued dating? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Lena’s back to twisting her fingers in her lap. “Does the thought of dating me make you feel uncomfortable? Because if so we can-“

“No!” Kara cuts in because that is definitely not it at all. The thought of dating Lena makes her feel anything but that. The thought of dating Lena makes her feel _wonderful_. Kara lays a hand over Lena’s tangled ones. “It’s just, we didn’t really talk much about this, about how us fake dating would work. Like I kissed you earlier and you blushed and I could hear your heartrate and I was worried I had crossed a line but then you kissed me too and you have really soft lips and...” She blushes, not actually sure where she’s going with this. “My point is, maybe we should set some boundaries or ground rules or something.”

“For the record, you’ve never made me feel uncomfortable.”

Kara smiles. “Good.” Lena has made her feel a lot of things but uncomfortable isn’t one of them. “Me neither.”

“So, ground rules?”

“Yeah, like we can hold hands and hug but only kisses on the cheek are allowed?”

“I don’t mind if we kiss on the lips.”

Kara freezes.

“Or not,” Lena quickly adds. “Cheek kisses are fine, we’ve done that before anyway.”

Rao, how Kara wants to say yes to a kiss. Her eyes drops to Lena’s lips, looking so utterly soft and kissable. She looks away. She knows if she gets a taste of Lena’s lips, she’ll never want to stop. And it’s not fair to either of them. Kara’s already stuck wanting something she can never have, which will only be made worse if she knows what it’s like to kiss Lena, and it’s not fair to kiss Lena when she has feelings like this for her and Lena doesn’t know.

Kara clears her throat against the sudden lump that’s there. “Maybe we should just stick to cheek kisses?”

“Of course,” Lena laughs quietly but it sounds strained. “Hand holding is still on the table then?”

They both glance down at their still joined hands and laugh.

“What about a date?” Kara asks, blushing when she realises how that sounds.

“Kara Danvers, are you asking me out?” Lena asks, smirk on her face, clear amusement in the quirk of her eyebrow.

Kara’s mouth is moving before she can really think about what she’s doing. “If you want.”

Lena grins. “Then I accept. Will you bring me flowers?”

Lena is still clearly joking, and Kara could play along, pretend it’s all part of fooling their friends, but suddenly she doesn’t want to, the thought of holding Lena’s hand, giving her flowers and treating her to a nice meal out is too tempting. Sure, she could have that anyway, but it feels like torture to dangle something she wants so close, but have it all be fake.

Kara steels herself, sits up a bit straighter, channeling some of her Supergirl confidence for what she’s about to do. Lena’s her best friend, she thinks, and no matter what, they can get through anything.

“Will you go out on a date with me?” Lena stills beside her. “And before you answer, I want you to know that I’m not asking you out as your fake girlfriend, I’m asking you out as Kara Danvers, your best friend, the woman who’s had a crush on you for the longest time. I guess that’s why no one was surprised to hear we were dating, they must’ve been able to see how I feel about you. I like you, so much, much more than one best friend should like another, and I’d very much like to take you out on a date and not have it be pretend.”

“You told everyone that I asked you out and at the time, you had no idea I liked you, but it seems the opposite is true.”

“If you don’t want to, we can just forget this ever happened. We can forget about the fake dating too, whatever you want, I just wanted you to know. I just want you to be happy.”

Lena flips her a hand under Kara’s, threads their fingers together. “I think everyone will be confused when we celebrate our one year anniversary a month later than expected but we can deal with that later.”

A slow smile spreads across Kara’s face when the meaning of Lena’s words sink in. “Is that a yes?”

“I really thought you already knew how I felt about you, I thought that’s why everyone assumed we were dating. Of course it’s a yes.”

Kara drops her forehead to Lena’s shoulder, relief flowing through her as a warm feeling settles in her chest. The warm feeling only intensifies when she feels a pair of lips press against her hair.

“I guess no more pretending then?” Kara asks, looking back up at Lena.

“Can I admit I wasn’t really pretending all evening?”

Kara smiles. “Neither was I.”

“So, when you called me ‘ _love’_ …?”

Kara blushes. “You called me ‘ _darling_ ,’ you don’t get to tease me about that.” Alex will later though.

Lena shakes her head slightly as she shifts closer. “I wasn’t complaining, just pointing out what you said.”

Kara feels her body heat when she sees the way Lena’s eyes drop to her lips.

“So, when you said no kissing on the lips…?”

_Rao, Lena is going to be the death of her._

“I meant I didn’t want it to be pretend.”

Kara’s own eyes drop when Lena’s tongue darts out to wet her lips. Kara is captivated.

“Can I kiss you?” Lena whispers, inching ever closer.

“I was thinking I’d buy you dinner first.”

“You bought me dinner last night, does that count?”

Lena’s so close now Kara can feel her breath ghosting over her lips. There was no way she could’ve foreseen this outcome when Lena suggested they pretend to be dating this morning.

“Yes,” Kara says, the word barely out before Lena’s lips press insistently against hers. She already knew Lena’s lips were soft but it’s something else entirely to feel how soft they are when they’re pressing against her own.

The kiss doesn’t last long, mostly because they both end up grinning into it, Kara giggling as she pulls away.

“If we’re going to continue being honest tonight, that was the best first kiss I’ve ever had,” Kara says, causing Lena to giggle too and it’s magical.

Lena brushes a strand of hair behind Kara’s ear, her fingers leaving a trail like fire against her skin. “You’re the best fake girlfriend ever.”

Kara laughs. “Please don’t let Alex hear you say that, she’s going to kill me when she finds out.”

“No she won’t, she’ll be happy, it means she technically won the bet with Maggie.”

“But it means she lost the other one too,” Kara says. “Since she said you asked me out.”

Lena cups her cheek, her hand so soft and gentle against her face. “I’m glad you asked me out.”

Kara leans into the contact, reveals in the warmth and touch. “Me too.”

\---

They don’t tell anyone the first night was fake, they just start dating and pretend they had been all along. The truth only comes out, like Lena had said, when they celebrate their first anniversary a month too late.

Alex gets her money back but then she also owes Maggie breakfast in bed.

Kara and Lena get some teasing from their friends, but a bit of teasing really isn’t that bad when you have the love of your life by your side.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Tumblr: spaceman-earthgirl


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